Travelog for: Kroko

Next stop was Lithgow, which was about an hours drive from Bathurst... honestly, there's not too much there, but Sara decided to show us something she's always liked for part of Lithgow, which is the Lithgow's Miner's Lamp... here I am in front of it...

...since this is the backside of it you can't see it all that well... it doesn't look much different, although this is what it looks like from the front...

...not much different as you can see... but you can see the windows at the bottom... there's a little bit of cloth thats is lit by an orange lamp and a little fan to make it look like a flame... kinda cool... :-) Otherwise Lithgow there isn't much to see... we're only at the half way point of Sydney now... watch for more updates. :-)

Next stop was in Sydney's Blue Mountains... they're in the outskirts of Sydney, a lot of people don't really think much about the outskirts, let alone thinking there is a huge mountain range that goes through before you get to Orange, Bathurst and even Lithgow... well, welcome to the Blue Mountains... it was time to visit one of the big tourist spots for people visiting the Blue Mountains and Sydney... the Three Sisters... a huge rock formation...


...can you see it? It's behind some trees, but Sara had to take photos in an odd spot as it was quite full near the view point so she didn't want to loose any of us... so she then walked over and got a proper photo of it... isn't it pretty? Also you can tell in the distance why they call it the Blue Mountains... :-)


The Three Sisters comes with an old aboriginal legend... this is what it is:

Long ago in the Blue Mountains there lived three little Aboriginal sisters. They were Meenhi, Wimlah and Gunnedoo, whose Witch Doctor father was called Tyawan.

Only one creature was feared by all – the Bunyip who lived in a deep hole. When Tyawan had to pass the hole, he would leave his daughters safely on the cliff behind a rocky wall. One day, waving goodbye to his daughters, he descended the cliff steps. On top of the cliff a big centipede suddenly appeared and frightened Meehni, who threw a stone at it. The stone rolled over the cliff and crashed into the valley.

Birds, animals and fairies stopped till as the rocks behind the three sisters split open, leaving them on a thin ledge.

The angry Bunyip emerged to see the terrified sisters. In the valley, Tyawan saw the Bunyip close to his daughters, so he pointed his magic bone at the girls and turned them to stone. The Bunyip then chased Tyawan, who found himself trapped, so he changed himself into a Lyre Bird. Everyone was safe, but Tyawan had dropped his magic bone. After the Bunyip had gone, Tyawan searched and searched for his bone – and he is still searching.

The Three Sisters stand silently watching him from their ledge, hoping he will find the bone to turn them back to Aboriginal girls.

As you look at the Three Sisters, you can hear Tyawan – the Lyre Bird – calling his daughters as his search for the lost bone continues.

Here are some of the views around the Three Sisters... it's quite beautiful isn't it?




Well... were almost in Sydney now... just a bit longer... sadly we weren't able to see any of the big famous things like the Harbor Bridge or the Opera House but you can see what Sydney looks like at least... :-) Write again soon!

Well... we were finally there... well no, not really Sydney is a HUGE city full of smaller suburbs, the actually city of Sydney is pretty small which is just the CBD, which is what everyone sees, the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, all that fun stuff... lots of huge buildings and very expensive shops... :-) Kind of like Rodeo Drive in Hollywood... lots and lots of expensive shops and tourists...


Sadly, we weren't able to visit that - Sara and Daniel had an appointment at a dietician and allergist for their son Andrew at the now famous hospital RPA (Royal Price Alfred Hospital) - why is it famous you might ask? Because it's got a TV show on every Thursday... Sara enjoys watching it... it's got some pretty crazy stuff from what I've seen of it... lol...


...that's mainly what a lot of Sydney looks like, very similar to Orange actually... very old looking buildings... Sydney is a mix of old and new buildings... as you can see...


...we were also very very close to the Sydney CBD, we got to see the Sydney skyline while we were driving but it was quite hectic driving around Sydney, especially this close to the CBD, you take one wrong turn and your in a different suburb and lost...



...now, you might wonder what that strange looking tower is in between the bigger buildings... it's called the AMP Tower, also known as the Centerpoint Tower, it's right in the middle of Sydney... you wouldn't have any idea, but people walk along the top of it, it's called the Sydney Skywalk... Sara honestly thinks people are crazy, there's a part with a walkway that's clear so you can look straight under you... so creepy! Then again, Sara's not fond of heights...

...but as you can probably imagine, Sara had a good time navigating their way to Camperdown, without one wrong turn (without using the map even)... then when we got there... we couldn't merge... so we drove into another suburb and got lost... so there was a lot of this:

If that doesn't look scary, I can guarantee you it is... haha... well, I'm back in Orange now, safe and sound it was quite a long day... we're going to Bathurst on Wednesday though for some mystery shopping, and some more kangaroo searching... and maybe a bit more, we shall see won't we? :-) I hope you enjoyed my trip to Sydney! :-)

I'm still in Australia but I just heard about my article from Finland It's in November issue in the Finnish pet magazine Lemmikki. The picture was taken in a railway station in Helsinki before I flied to Australia. In the magazine my mom tells about me and my travel plan.  You'll here more about me!

Today we took another trip to Bathurst, for of course more mystery shopping... and to show the other toyvoyagers that hadn't been here the Mount Panorama race track... we didn't get to really see it since we had already seen it so we just sat back for the ride... but here I am in front of the Mount Panorama sign anyways... :-)


...and since you couldn't really see it last time here's the big sign on the side of the "mountain"...


Well, after that we went and searched for some kangaroos, but it was so hot there were none to be found... we had a lot of really really hot days lately, and today it was EIGHT degrees above average for this time of year... man it's been crazy! I just wonder what this Summer is going to be like if it's this hot in the Spring! Write again soon mom! <3

We decided to take another trip to Bathurst, for another mystery shop... as you know usually Sara takes all toyvoyagers onto the Mount Panorama race track... but for some reason it was closed... we had a bit of a look around and they were having a race today... not the HUGE Bathurst 1000 but some smaller race... we couldn't do much but stand back and watch...

The famous Mount Panorama sign, this is right in front of the starting gate... and then we saw some of the race cars...























I'm not in these photos because Sara was so zoomed in that I wouldn't have looked like anything but a blur... sorry about that! But I can promise, if I'm still with Sara next month we'll be going back to Bathurst and hopefully this time we can see some kangaroos too! :-)

We also got to see the newly famous Peter Brock Statue he died a day or something after Steve Irwin died in 2006, he died in a race but he was known as "king of the mountain"... so they made him a statue an put it up for this years races in the beginning of October...


...just as we were leaving we saw another race car coming in... it means this must not have been anything but qualifying but it was still cool to watch for a while...


I hope you enjoyed my time in Bathurst... hopefully I'll go back again soon! Write again soon mom! Miss you!

The weather has been really crazy the last few days... when we went to Bathurst it was really warm out - cloudy but very very warm... the last few days it's been really rainy and cold... with very high winds... the weather changes here are so crazy sometimes... but hey, I'm enjoying the cooler weather while it lasts... :-)

Today we took a very unexpected trip... Sara had to plan quickly as they only realized they were going yesterday... but we had a lot to see this time... I won't tell you where were heading as it was a big trip but our first stop was Bathurst... this time Sara actually saw some kangaroos...







...the kangaroos were a LOT farther than normal this time... the first photo the photo was taken with a 12x zoom, the other photos it was 48x zoom... if that also would explain why I'm not in the photo... I would say I'll never get enough of seeing these little (or not so little) guys. :-)

More to come...

Maybe you have an idea of where were going now? You look at the map and you probably already know... but next stop was Lithgow, we stopped to see the huge mining lantern again while we got our bearings before moving back onto the road... here I am in front of the mining lantern... if you can see where there used to be a "flame" is now a Christmas tree... :-)


We had to go to the bank as well to pull out a bit of money so we had to go and search for the bank down the main street of Lithgow, this is what the rest of the town looks like...


...looks not much different from Orange and Bathurst... nor does the middle of Sydney - lots of older buildings... with Lithgow, even though it's much closer to Sydney than Orange and Bathurst a lot of the business have gone out of business... it's very empty... kind of strange isn't it? Hold tight there's still way more to come! :-)

Welcome to Sydney! We're here... well... not quite yet... were currently in the outskirts of Sydney in the towns of Penrith and Paramatta... pretty large cities though... here are some of the photos from Paramatta as we were going through... sorry were not in them it's hard to take photos so quickly as your going through the towns...


...you wouldn't know from these photos but navigating through even the outskirts of Sydney is very hard sometimes - one wrong turn and your in another suburb and totally lost... lol there's another little while before were there - but first we have a stop off to make...

We were going to Sydney to look at a car - our current car needs a lot of fixing up so were getting another one that uses LPG (propane) for fuel, so fuel is half the price... so were going to see a 2000 Ford AU Falcon, the newest car we've ever had... where we were seeing the car was in Riverside but we decided to check out a bay called Tambourine Bay right down the street... it was quite beautiful! :-)

Here are some trees around the bay, these ones are interesting looking aren't they?

...but what's cool are these trees...

...these are called Morton Bay Fig Trees... they're native only to Sydney and one of the original trees that Sydney was full of before it became really civilized.. aren't they cool looking?

As we were going a small walk down to the bay here's what we saw above the trees...


and of course here I am in front of the bay... isn't it pretty? the water was also very very warm... it's amazing to think the ocean could be so warm...

This wasn't just our first time going through Sydney like this - this was also Sara's... we had just gotten our GPS navigator so Sara and Daniel cruised through Sydney and were able to see somethings they never thought they see - and places they never thought existed... so next stop was Cockatoo Island... when they were driving through they realized one thing... it's a very rich area, there were HUGE houses and they all looked very expensive... Sara made her way down the hill with us and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw what was there...


...Sara hasn't ever had a chance to show some toyvoyagers the Sydney Harbor Bridge like this, and it was a beautiful view point of the bridge - it would be an awesome place to sit if you were going to see the fireworks on New Years Eve...

The other photo is of the AMP tower and the Sydney skyline... sadly you can't see the opera house from here... but there's more to see... how exciting is that? After we went to Cockatoo Island and saw the awesome harbor bridge and the AMP tower we went to a point called Onion Point... there wasn't much to see - we had to walk along a dock to see anything and this was the view...


As we were heading back to the car we saw these really strange flowers? Aren't they pretty though?


...there's more coming... :-) Write again soon!

We just happened to be going right through the central business district of Sydney... which is to put it lightly very scary to go through... lots of traffic, lots of people, lots of roads... people don't usually like to drive through it... you walk or you taxi or bus it since it's so confusing... but the GPS put us directly in the centre of the CBD of Sydney so Sara got a few shots before going back out of the CBD heading towards our next stop... here are some of the shots in the middle of the city...



...we were getting a bit lost and we only had a little bit longer to spend at our next stop... plus we kind of got lost... but there's more to come! :-)

Well next stop was Balls Head... sounds like a funny name... really quite actually but Sara was amazed by the sights she saw when we were up at the "peak"... there was a lot of steep hills around where we were driving and then bang! We were there... these are some of the things we saw...



...here's the Anzac Bridge... Sara's never been on it but it's one of the other more famous bridges in Sydney....


...we also got to see a much closer shot of the AMP tower...


...as you can see there is a lot of cargo ships going in and out of the harbor as well, here's one of them...


It was a really clear and hot day despite the darkness of the photos (we were in a lot of trees) as you can see there were a lot of people on boats and at the beaches today...


...and as we were driving back down... we saw something that made us pull over... I only had a very short time to take photos or I would have gotten all of us out of the car for a photo but this shows how close we were to the harbor bridge and the opera house...


Isn't that just gorgeous? Too bad we couldn't see the whole opera house as was planned for today... but this isn't it? Sara took us to see something a bit more exciting (she thought anyways)... back on the road...

Last stop today was Manly Beach, one of the most popular Sydney beaches... it was very beautiful... one of Sydney's most famous beaches is called Bondi beach, but it's usually so packed that we don't even bother... there was sadly not much to do for us little toyvoyagers so we got a photo and then we went back to the car so we weren't taken or hurt by being left on the beach... here I am in front of the beach... isn't it gorgeous?


...before we went back to the safety of the car one of the seagulls decided to come and check us out - I think he thought we were food...


...here are some other shots of the beach... isn't the water so pretty? It was also very very warm as well... sadly Sara and everyone wasn't ready for the beach so they couldn't go very deep in the water... but Sara enjoyed taking photos...










...and just as we were about to leave a whole bunch of people came in from what seemed like out of no where... there was maybe 20-30 kayakers... some professional, some more or less beginner but it was quite fun to see them coming in and out. Sara thinks they were practicing for a triathlon... they had a lot of fun playing in the waves...




We had spent over an hour at the beach, it was time to head home... it was going on 7pm and it was a 3 and a bit hour drive home... it's been a long LONG day I hope you enjoyed seeing Sydney through my eyes... we hope to go back again next month! If I'm still here I'll get to see a bit more of the Sydney beaches! Write again soon mom, we have another big trip coming up at the end of this month! Miss you!